


Love Painted in Ink

by shadowsaber420BLAZEIT



Series: Inky Soulmate AU [4]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, Spoilers up to Chapter 2, The others get mentioned a lot but only Kokichi and Shuichi talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 15:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12797385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowsaber420BLAZEIT/pseuds/shadowsaber420BLAZEIT
Summary: After many meaningful conversations, they finally kiss.Soulmate AU:When someone writes on their skin it appears on their soulmates skin.





	Love Painted in Ink

**Author's Note:**

> This plays directly after First Meetings Concealed in Ink and directly ties into Written in Ink.

Shuichi woke up to a sea of purple. Oh, so yesterday hadn’t been a dream then. Kokichi really was his soulmate. That actually happened. He didn’t imagine that. All right. They were still cuddling under the covers, safely tucked away from reality. Kokichi looked so relaxed when he slept. He looked quite adorable like that. Shuichi cursed that he didn’t have any windows – Kokichi would have made quite the handsome picture.

So much had happened yesterday. He had been too tired to think about everything. He was still immensely scared of revealing the truth. But now? He looked at Kokichi again. He could do this. No, he _would_ face the truth. Shuichi simply had to. For Rantaro and Kaede. To keep everyone alive. Most importantly to keep Kokichi alive. Shuichi knew he was weak, but he still wanted to protect Kokichi, the most important person in his life. In order to do that, Shuichi would get stronger. He would face the truth again and again if it meant he could protect Kokichi.

His gaze settled on his soulmate again. _Soulmate._ Shuichi still couldn’t believe it. Kokichi was quite a handful, but a wonderful one. Shuichi could see that his soulmate had his own problems as well. He would be patient until Kokichi revealed them to him. Then Shuichi would do the same thing Kokichi always did for him. Be there for him. He would become the rock Kokichi could rely on. Shuichi simply had to.

Kokichi choose that moment to wake up slowly. He felt so warm and safe – this was truly the best way to wake up. He nuzzled Shuichi and huffed, “I don’t wanna wake uuuup.” Shuichi chuckled “Let’s cuddle a bit longer, the morning announcement hasn’t happened yet anyway.” Kokichi cheered and wrapped himself around Shuichi again. Shuichi truly was the best pillow _ever._

“Hey Kokichi? What are we now?” Shuichi hesitantly asked. He didn’t want to upset the other boy, but he needed to _know_. Thankfully, Kokichi didn’t seem bothered by the question and answered enthusiastically, “We’re boyfriends silly! That’s the next logical step, riiiight? …Unless you don’t want to…” The last part was whispered and Shuichi got the feeling he wasn’t supposed to hear it. He tightened his arms around Kokichi and blushed, “Kokichi, would you do me the honor of becoming my b-boyfriend?” He wasn’t supposed to stutter damn it!

Kokichi immediately nodded, “If that’s what may beloved Shuichi wants I don’t mind.” He pressed himself into Shuichi again. Shuichi could make out a muffled, “Yes, I’ll be your boyfriend.” He slowly removed himself from his boyfriend _(boyfriend!)_ and it was as he expected. Kokichi’s face had turned extremely red. His boyfriend blushed easily, huh? It wasn’t like he didn’t blush just as easily, but it was still good to know. He kissed Kokichi on the forehead again – turns out he really liked that – and said, “You look really adorable when you blush.” “Shut up.” was the immediate reply.

Suddenly his doorbell rang. Kokichi quickly dove under the bed and Shuichi answered the door. It was Kaito. He had come to take Shuichi to breakfast. That itself wasn’t a problem. The problem was getting Kokichi out of his room without being seen. Shuichi decided he had to distract Kaito somehow. He engaged the taller boy in a conversation about Kaede. He hoped that would distract Kaito enough. “Oh wait Kaito; I forgot to lock my door.” Shuichi lied. When he looked inside his room, Kokichi was already gone. How did he manage that so fast and quietly? Maybe it was a supreme leader thing or something.

 

* * *

 

Seeing Kokichi at breakfast had surprisingly not been awkward. They interacted as they always had – with the others being none the wiser. They just fit together so well – is that what being soulmates meant? Shuichi didn’t know, but he liked to think so.

The others had been so surprised when he stopped wearing his hat – and so was he. He never imagined he would want to look people in the eyes again. He would have to, Shuichi realized. In order to save everyone he would have to. He was overthinking things again, wasn’t he?

After Shuichi was done exploring the new labs, he felt something tickling his hand. When he looked at his arm, he saw a message from Kokichi. _“Meet me at the warehouse. It’s important.”_ the message read. Fine by him, he didn’t have anything to do anymore anyway. He made his way to the warehouse. By some miracle, no one asked him why he was going there. Shuichi wondered what they were thinking. That he was going to stare sadly at the shot put balls or something? Yes, he missed Kaede and he was sad that the girl died, but it wasn’t healthy to keep clinging to the past. Besides, Kaede wouldn’t want that for him. She would want him to keep moving forward. Therefore, Shuichi would.

When he arrived at the warehouse, Kokichi was nowhere to be seen. What was his troublesome soulmate planning now? Suddenly Kokichi tackle-hugged him. While wearing a horse head? Shuichi wasn’t even surprised anymore. Fortunately not falling on his butt, Shuichi removed Kokichi’s arms from him and asked, “…Why exactly are you wearing a horse head?” Kokichi took the head off, grinning like a lunatic, he said, “Cuz it’s funny! Anyway, let’s get down to business my dearest soulmate! Help me find a whiteboard, lots of paper and drawing utensils!”

Shuichi looked at the other in confusion. Why would Kokichi need all those things? Ugh, what did it matter? He just wanted to spend more time with Kokichi anyway. That’s how the both of them ended up carrying boxes of paper and writing utensils up to Kokichi’s room. They had to carry the whiteboard together, because it was too heavy to carry alone. "Kokichi, why do you need all this stuff?" Shuichi finally asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. Kokichi simply made a shushing gesture, “Wait till work is over Shuichi!”

After getting some pictures of all of them that were in the warehouse for some odd reason, Shuichi noticed a camera on Kokichi’s floor. Curios he picked it up and almost dropped it. That was evidence for the first case! Why did Kokichi have that? They were done with work anyway so he could ask now, right?

In that moment, Kokichi burst into the room, holding whiteboard makers. “Look! Look! It took forever to find these!” he exclaimed, sounding quite pleased with himself. Shuichi sighed “Good job. Now you’ll answer my questions, won’t you?” Kokichi nodded, “Of course! I’ll do anything my beloved wants!” Shuichi blushed. It still embarrassed him when Kokichi spoke of him that way. He just had to get used to it.

“Why do you need all of this? And why do you have evidence from the trial?”  
Kokichi seemed to have expected these questions “All of that stuff? It’s all part of my evil master plan! About the evidence thing; I figured that we should keep the evidence somewhere safe – I don’t trust Monokuma with them.” Shuichi agreed with that last part – Monokuma is the last person he would trust with the evidence, even if they didn’t need it anymore.

“What exactly is this ‘evil master plan’ of yours?”  
“Prepare to be amazed my dear!” Kokichi gestured to the whiteboard and the pictures of everyone, “With this we’ll keep notes on everyone! The one who’s the most suspicious is the mastermind! Ingenious right?” Kokichi then pointed at the papers next, “I’ll make an alliance with Miu, so she’ll make me stuff I design! I’m not quite sure what I’ll give her in return but maybe if I call her bitch a lot she’ll do it!” Shuichi nodded, that seemed plausible. It was also a good plan – he expected nothing less from Kokichi. Shuichi nodded again, “That does sound like a good plan. C’mon let’s take notes on everyone.”

The rest of the day was spent with gathering as much info as they could of everyone and added that to the whiteboard. Kokichi was quite satisfied with himself. He made progress on his search on the mastermind and he got to spent time with his favorite person in the whole wide world! He turned to Shuichi and said, “You know Shuichi? I really really hate killing. This game is awful and I want it _gone._ We’re not just gonna survive this Killing Game… We’re gonna crush it.” Shuichi was a bit shocked – he knew Kokichi disliked killing, but not to this extent. Nevertheless, he agreed but there was still one question on his mind.

“Why did you lie about loving this Killing Game?” Shuichi had to know. Now it was Kokichi’s turn to be shocked – he hoped Shuichi wouldn’t ask about that so soon. “Nishishi! You do know that death games are meant to be watched, right? I’m just giving the audience what it wants and besides… I don’t know whom I can trust besides you Shuichi. I know without a doubt that you aren’t the mastermind, but I can’t say the same about the others. Everyone could be the mastermind and I can’t tell them the truth until I’m absolutely sure they aren’t.”

Shuichi was speechless. Kokichi’s explanation made an awful amount of sense. Why else have so many rules and have such gruesome executions if no one was going to watch it? It explained the first motive too – the mastermind wanted them to get started quickly. He didn’t want to suspect his friends but it would be stupid not to. He nodded and swore to himself that he would be more cautious now.

“I will never betray you Kokichi. Never. If you can’t believe in anything else then please believe in that. I lik- no I love you too much to betray you.” There, he said it. He loved Kokichi and he would make sure the other boy knew that, even if it was embarrassing to say. Shuichi hesitantly looked at the shorter male only to be meet with a surprising sight. Kokichi’s mouth had dropped and his eyes were wide open, looking at him in disbelief. “Y-you love _me_? Please don’t toy with my heart like that Shuichi. There’s no way that someone as wonderful as you could love an awful liar like myself.” Kokichi looked like he was mere seconds away from tears. Shuichi quickly rushed to wipe them away before they could fall and gathered Kokichi up in his arms tenderly.

“I’m not lying Kokichi. I swear. You’re a wonderful person. So what if you lie? I’ll just have to learn to see through them. Look me in the eyes. _Please_.” Said boy slowly lifted his head, still looking at him in disbelief. Shuichi continued, he couldn’t screw this up. “I love you more than anything. I have known you since the moment I could write and you never failed to get a smile on my face. I may not have known your name or what you looked like, but I always knew that you are a kind and wonderful person! Yes, you lie, yes, you’re a bit annoying sometimes, but you aren’t awful. Yes, I love you with everything I have and I always will.”

Kokichi swallowed and steeled himself. He wouldn’t run away. Shuichi was his _soulmate_ – his faithful companion since forever. “Shuichi… All right, I believe you. I never felt about someone as strongly as I felt about you before. I love you too! There is no way I couldn’t with you being so adorable and handsome! And that’s the truth!” Kokichi grinned happily through his tears. He couldn’t believe his soulmate was someone as amazing as Shuichi. He felt like he didn’t deserve it, but if Shuichi thought so that he was a good person underneath all his lies than Kokichi would damn well try to better himself. He wanted to make his soulmate proud of him.

Kokichi didn’t know what possessed him to do what he was about to do. It just felt so right in that moment. He pulled Shuichi down to his height and pressed his lips on Shuichi’s. The detective needed a moment before he responded. It was a clumsy kiss, but it was perfect. As they pulled away to get air Kokichi said, “Well that was awful! You have to get better at kissing my dearest! We need to kiss a bunch to train!” Shuichi blushed and nodded. He pulled Kokichi closer to him and proceeded to kiss his boyfriend. They remained like that for a long time. It was special for the both of them – and there wasn’t even any tongue involved. It was left unsaid that they wanted to evolve their physical relationship slowly – they both just _knew_.

As they were sitting on the bed, their foreheads pressed together, the nighttime announcement decided to break the atmosphere. “Please don’t leave me…” Kokichi whispered quietly. Shuichi pulled the other boy closer to him in a protective embrace, “Never. I could never leave you.”

 

* * *

 

They found the new motive when they awoke. Both of them had decided that Shuichi should get his before they watched it. They also had decided to watch Shuichi’s first. To the pair’s surprise, it was Kaito’s. Before Shuichi could storm of to find Kaito they wanted to see whose Kokichi’s motive video was. This time it actually was Kokichi’s.

Kokichi watched, horrified, as he saw his faithful followers and friends were being shown injured and behind bars. What happened to them!? That had to be a lie, right? It had to be! Shuichi quickly noticed his soulmates distress and pulled Kokichi into a hug again. It was no time to freak out now – they had to know what the others had seen first.

 

* * *

 

Shuichi had been confused when Kokichi went off with Gonta, but he trusted his boyfriend. He felt the tingling sensation on his hand again. The message from Kokichi was, “ _Don’t worry your pretty little head about this! I have a plan!_ ” Since Shuichi had nothing to do now he decided he should spent some time with Keebo. The robot seemed like a nice person.

Despite Keebo’s rather… lame functions he was a very nice guy. Shuichi would just never let the robot sing again. He hoped his ears had stopped bleeding. Suddenly his doorbell rang. It was Kato again and he wanted to… train? That would certainly help him to become stronger.

After a training session and serious talk with Kaito about Kaede, Shuichi was beat. He just wanted to sleep – and cuddle with Kokichi again. To his confusion, Kokichi was waiting inside his room for him. Hadn’t he locked the door? As he asked this Kokichi laughed and put his arms behind his head, “I can pick locks Shuichi! No secret is safe from me! By the way, why were you out so late?” Shuichi explained his training plan with Kaito to Kokichi.

Kokichi was thoughtful after Shuichi’s explanation. Kokichi finally revealed his thoughts, “I don’t really know what to make of Kaito. I thought he was stupid and annoying at first but… if he really wants to help you he can’t be that bad. I still don’t like him though!” Shuichi sighed but he knew that Kokichi wouldn’t like Kaito much. Their viewpoints simply clashed too much – cold hard logic vs. simply believing in people.

“I wanted to ask you something Kokichi. What’s your great plan?” Kokichi giggled, “Nishishi! Wouldn’t you like to know? You get to be surprised with everyone else tomorrow! It would be suspicious if you weren’t surprised you know.” Shuichi sighed in defeat, but he was very curious what his soulmate had planned.

 

* * *

 

The Insect Meet and Greet was a disaster, but what happened afterwards was much worse. Ryoma was dead, as was his killer Kirumi now. Maki turned out to be the Ultimate Assassin. He entered his room and started thinking.


End file.
